The corpus record — Latin

lustrum1

ceremony of purification; five-year period

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Ab Urbe Condita, books 8-10 - 16s 1 · 125/10k
Ab Urbe Condita, books 8-10 - 20s 2 · 120.48/10k
Ab Urbe Condita, books 8-10 - 14s 1 · 84.03/10k
Ausonius 1 · 69.44/10k
Ab Urbe Condita, books 8-10 - 18s 1 · 60.24/10k
Ab Urbe Condita, books 8-10 - 13s 1 · 58.82/10k
Ab Urbe Condita, books 8-10 - 11s 1 · 50.51/10k
Ab Urbe Condita, books 8-10 - 19s 1 · 49.75/10k
Ab urbe condita, fragments 1 · 47.62/10k
Carmen Saeculare 1 · 32.36/10k
Ordo Urbium Nobilium 1 · 9.56/10k
Epitaphia heroum qui bello Troico interfuerunt 1 · 8.33/10k

Densest 12 of 78 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. lustrum — de Vaan

lustrum 'ceremony of purification; five-year period' [n, o] (Cato+) Derivatives: lustrare 'to purify ceremonially, move round, spread light' (Andr.+); — [de Vaan, s.v. lustrum, p. 368]

2. lustrum — Lewis & Short

lustrum, i, n.1. luo, lavo; cf.: monstrum, moneo,

I a slough, bog, morass, puddle.

I Lit.: prodigunt in lutosos limites ac lustra, ut volutentur in luto, Varr. R. R. 2, 4, 8.—

II Transf.

A A haunt or den of wild beasts: lustra ferarum, Verg. G. 2, 471; id. A. 3, 647: lustra horrida monstris, Val. Fl. 4, 370.—

2 A wood, forest: postquam altos ventum in montes atque invia lustra, Verg. A. 4, 151: inter horrentia lustra, id. ib. 11, 570.—

B A house of ill-repute: ubi in lustra jacuisti? St. Egone in lustra? Plaut. Cas. 2, 3, 26: quod dem scortis, quodque in lustris comedim, id. Bacch. 4, 4, 91; id. Curc. 4, 2, 22: in lustris latet, Turp. ap. Non. 333, 15: in lustris, popinis, alea, vino tempus aetatis omne consumpsisses, Cic. Phil. 13, 11, 24: homo emersus ex diuturnis tenebris lustrorum, id. Sest. 9, 20.—

2 Debauchery; cf.: lustra significant lacunas lutosas, quae sunt in silvis aprorum cubilia. A quā similitudine, hi, qui in locis abditis et sorditis ventri et gulae operam dant, dicuntur in lustris vitam agere, Paul. ex Fest. p. 120: domus, in qua lustra, libidines, luxuries, omnia denique inaudita vitia, versentur, Cic. Cael. 23, 57: studere lustris, Plaut. As. 5, 2, 17: lustris perire, Lucr. 4, 1136: vino lustrisque confectus, Cic. Phil. 2, 3, 6: qui pugnent, marcere Campana luxuria, vino et scortis omnibusque lustris per totam hiemem confectos, Liv. 23, 45, 3.

3. lustrum — Lewis & Short

lustrum, i, n.2. luo,

I a purificatory sacrifice, expiatory offering, lustration, made by the censors for the whole people once in five years, after completing the census, and in which a swine, a sheep, and a bull were offered (suovetaurilia): lustrum condere, to make the lustral sacrifice: lustrum condidit et taurum immolavit, Cic. de Or. 2, 66, 268: censu perfecto edixit, ut omnes cives Romani in campo primā luce adessent. Ibi exercitum omnem suovetaurilibus lustravit: idque conditum lustrum appellatum, quia is censendo finis factus est, Liv. 1, 44; 3, 24; cf. id. 35, 9; 38, 36; 42, 10. The census could also be taken without being followed by a lustrum, Liv. 3, 22, 1; 24, 43, 4: sub lustrum censeri, at the close of the census, when the lustrum should begin: sub lustrum censeri, germani negotiatoris est (because these were usually not in Rome, and were included in the census last of all), Cic. Att. 1, 18, 8.—Being a religious ceremonial, the lustrum was sometimes omitted, when circumstances seemed to forbid it: census actus eo anno: lustrum propter Capitolium captum, consulem occisum, condi religiosum fuit, Liv. 3, 22, 1. Hence in part, doubtless, must be explained the small number of lustra actually celebrated; thus, A. U. C. 296: census perficitur, idque lustrum ab origine urbis decimum conditum ferunt, Liv. 3, 24, 10.—

II Transf.

A A propitiatory offering: quinto die Delphis Apollini pro me exercitibusque et classibus lustra sacrificavi, Liv. 45, 41, 3.—

B A period of five years, a lustrum (because every five years a lustrum was performed).

1 In gen.: cujus octavum trepidavit aetas Claudere lustrum, Hor. C. 2, 4, 24; Ov. Tr. 4, 10, 78; Mart. 10, 38, 9.—

2 As the period of taxation, in reference to the imposition of duties, Varr, L. L. 6, 2, 11: hoc ipso lustro, Cic. Att. 6, 2, 5: superioris lustri reliqua, id. Fam. 2, 13, 3.—

C In gen., a period of several years; of four years (of the Julian calendar), Ov. F. 3, 163; cf. Plin. 2, 47, 47, § 122: ingens lustrum, the grand lustrum, a hundred years, at the end of which the ludi saeculares were celebrated, Mart. 4, 1, 7.—

D From the time of Domitian, the Capitoline games, recurring every fifth year, Suet. Dom. 4; Censor. de Die Nat. 18; cf. Stat. S. 4, 2, 60: certamine Jovis Capitolini lustro sexto, Inscr. Grut. 332, 3; called lustri certamen, Aur. Vict. Caes. 27, 7.—

E Hectoris Lustra (not Lytra), title of a tragedy of Ennius; v. Trag. Rel. p. 28 sq. Rib.; Vahl. Enn. p. 113 sq.—

F The term of a lease: priore lustro, Plin. Ep. 9, 37, 2.

In the wild

lustrum Livy, Ab urbe condita 4.42s
lustro Prudentius, Peristephanon Liber 11.17
lustris Statius, Silvae 4.2.62
lustris Cicero, Cum Senatui Gratias Egit 13
lustris Martial, Epigrammata 10.38.9
lustrisque Cicero, Philippicae 2.6

6 of 185 attestations shown.

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. lustrum (scan p. 368; entry #965).
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. lustrum (scan p. 395; entry #6277).

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.